Saturday 25th June started as a mixed day weather wise, with grey clouds looming over the vast fields of Lymm High School.However, undeterred by the showers, preparations continued for one of the last events of Lymm Festival and a great showcase of the diverse talent of Lymm High School and the Lymm community. For those of you who have had the misfortune to miss this unique event in the past, let us highlight what Lymm Live is all about…

Picture a school field transformed into a mini festival ground (but minus the Glastonbury mud!).The covered stage equipped with PA systems expertly set up by the Lymm High School Music Tech students, is surrounded by an auditorium of hay bales kindly lent to us by a local farmer. However that is not all, as surrounding the stage and temporary natural seating are numerous activities for families including a bouncy slide, face painting, sweet stall and the obligatory fast food van.There is of course an ice cream van too, as well as a bar run by the volunteers of the Lymm High School PTA selling hot, cold, soft and alcoholic beverages. So the scene is set and as the afternoon goes by many students, parents, grandparents, friends, Lymm Festival supporters and members of the Lymm community wander into the grounds to experience a wide range of entertainment organised by the school.There is music of various genres, from brass to strings, orchestra to rock bands and singing from some of Lymm High School partner primaries as well as students, teachers and parents.The atmosphere is laid back with friends catching up with each other, children enjoying the freedom of an open green space and of course soaking up the wonderful talents displayed by the children and students on the stage. This year in addition to the musical entertainment we are pleased to host one of the Lymm Festival acts; ‘Comedy Sportz’, which the children in the crowd find particularly amusing. Volunteers are plentiful when the performers ask for assistance with their act, whether it involves working with the players on the stage or making strange noises into the microphone, or simply coming up with ideas for the teams to base their next activity on. It is plain to see that everyone is having fun and even the sun makes an appearance to warm everyone up and keep the rain away.

Lymm Live has now become an annual event so make sure you put it in your diary for next year – the last Saturday of Lymm Festival.Tickets are available at the Festival Box Office in the Village Hall Annexe leading up to the Festival or at the School shop or you can just pay at the entrance. All this could not happen without the support and hard work of the performing arts teachers and the talented students but also the ‘invisible’ work done behind the scenes setting up gazebos, bars and then manning the activities on the day by the Lymm High School PTA. Contrary to popular opinion, although Lymm High School is a large school with well over a 1000 pupils, the PTA is really very small and it is down to a handful of people who give up their time freely to make events such as this a success, so next time you see a PTA request do come along and support those few people as we are always looking for more friends to help us out, even if it is just for one event.

Thanks to all those who came to Lymm Live and especially those who stayed to enjoy the rock bands who patiently waited for their moment of stardom at the end of the afternoon/early evening.It was once again a success and we look forward to many more. If you would like to see other musical or performing art events held at Lymm High School throughout the year then keep checking on the school website for dates and times.

In the UK we have a poor record compared to other similar nations in saving lives with CPR and this project is aimed at improving that. We have had a manikin in school for some months now with students in the sixth form practising their skills and being assessed for their effectiveness. The next stage is to spread the word further. Two of the most up to date manikins have been secured by Professor Mackinnon and we are due to take them with us to South Africa this summer. One is destined for each of our partner schools. We have teamed up with the Cardamon Lounge Restaurant in Stockton Heath for a “Curry and CPR” night on Wednesday 13th July. We have arranged a two-course meal and Ralph will be there to teach us how to do effective CPR between courses. We are selling tickets for this event priced at £20 per head and £15 for under 16s. Funds raised on the evening will be used towards the cost of transporting the manikins to South Africa.

The Oxford Student Road trip visited Lymm High School on Wednesday 22nd June and students from Year 10 and 12 were able to benefit from the advice the under graduates offered about applying and studying at Oxford University. The students are currently studying a variety of courses from Law to Biochemistry at Pembroke College. In the morning they gave a brilliant presentation to Year 10 students about life at Oxford University as well as inspiring them to continue their hard work towards their studies and to ensure they are aware of their capabilities to progress onto the highest level of education. Following this, the Gateway Programme students in Year 12 were given a workshop to support them with their interview technique and writing their personal statements in preparation for their UCAS applications.

Well done to the Performing Arts Team of Mr Hardacre, Mrs Richards, Mr Starkey, Mrs Packman, Ms Oakes and Mr Shooter, who completed the Great North Swim in Windermere. This 1 mile outdoor swim was all in aid of charity to support a number of staff who have been affected by cancer over the past year. We are incredibly proud of them. If you would like to make a donation, the Justgiving link is still open: https://www.justgiving.com/lymmhighperformingarts

The RHS Campaign for School Gardening has partnered with the UK Space Agency to embark on an ‘out of this world’ educational project and Lymm High School is taking part!

The project, Rocket Science, will give around half a million UK children the chance to learn how science in space contributes to our knowledge of life on earth, using the invaluable expertise of the European Space Agency (ESA) and RHS Science team. As preparation for the experiment, rocket seeds were sent to the International Space Station as part of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s six-month Principia mission. After several months on board, the seeds were sent back to the UK, and were packaged up with identical seeds that have stayed on earth. Participating schools received two packets of 100 seeds to grow and compare.

The Year 7 Scholars students will be working with Mrs Donlan to monitor the seeds and record their findings. They began by sowing their seeds on Wednesday 27th April and will be monitoring their growth until Tuesday 31st May.

So far, the seeds are growing well, however there are some differences between the two groups of seedlings:

Blue – fewer seeds have germinated but the plants are maturing faster, and the seedlings are larger.

Red – almost all seeds germinated but the seedlings are growing slower.

We don’t know which group has been to space, but it is interesting that there do seem to be differences!

At the end of the 35 days we have to add our data to the national database, where all of the data will be analysed to see if going into space had a significant impact on rocket seeds.

On Wednesday 16th March, a group of 25 students from Lymm High School Sixth Form Gateway Programme visited the Oxford and Cambridge Conference at Aintree Race Course. The conference will hopefully inspire them to go on to achieve their potential of gaining A and A* grades across all subjects. The students’ UCAS applications will benefit hugely from being able to access talks from Oxford and Cambridge University Admission Officers on how to make a competitive university application, student finance and careers, as well as specific course lectures delivered by Oxbridge professors.

Last week, our Year 12 linguists thoroughly enjoyed a speaking skills activity day run by PGCE trainee teachers at Manchester University, aimed at helping our students ahead of the upcoming AS speaking exams.

A variety of intensive sessions throughout the day put our fantastic Year 12 French, German and Spanish students through their paces, showing off their ability to communicate effectively on a variety of AS Level topics. Students found the experience excellent preparation for the exam and the course leaders complimented the students on their outstanding effort and very impressive language skills!

We ended the day with a well-earned pizza before our trip home. Congratulations on representing our school so well!

A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Afritwin Auction of Promises Evening on Friday. A few more calculations are still to be made, however early projections are looking at an estimated £8000 raised for the Afritwin Challenge 2016. This is a fantastic achievement; the money raised will go a long way in supporting our work in South Africa this summer. Thank you to all the staff and parents who have worked extremely hard to make this evening possible.

We have lots of fundraising activities happening this week for Sports Relief. Firstly the Food Technology faculty will be holding a sports theme cake competition on Thursday, with the cakes being sold during break on Friday to raise money for Sports Relief. We also have a staff football match as well as the much anticipated row-a-thon. The sponsored row will be happening on Friday and students will be aiming to row 209 miles throughout the day (1 mile for each country entering the Olympics).

Congratulations to Toby Phillips (Year 13) and Harry Radcliff (Year 10), who have both been selected for the England U18s Touch Rugby team. This is a great achievement, especially for Harry as he is still eligible for this age groups for another three years. Congratulations must also go to Joe Murphy who has been selected to play for Sale Academy U16s in the Wellington festival. Again another great achievement as this is where all the academies come together and play each other, looking at selection for the England U16s team.